


Ursine

by Lightspeed



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Cold Weather, Cuddling & Snuggling, Family, M/M, Monsters, Reveal, Romance, Smissmas Break, Snow and Ice, Transformation, Trauma, Trust, Winter, meteor showers, werebear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 02:01:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2331095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightspeed/pseuds/Lightspeed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a month-long Smissmas furlough, Heavy and Medic get the chance to spend time alone together.  But there is something Heavy needs to tell Medic, the only secret he has left, the one thing about him that his beloved doktor knows nothing about.  He fears nothing, save for what Medic will think when he learns that in the dark of winter, he becomes something else.  Something no longer human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ursine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Medacris](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Medacris).



"Heavy, what is this about?" Medic asked, shivering in his layers of sweaters and socks, his fur-lined overcoat flapping in the biting breezes that whipped across the snow. Why in the world would he tug him out of the toasty-warm mansion he called a 'cabin in the mountains' to talk? Why couldn't they converse inside? It was dark, and cold, and bitter in the high, thin air of the Rockies where Heavy's American home away from the base lay.

Medic had found the chilly environs charming, reminiscent of Heavy's frozen home in Siberia, and the perfect place to cuddle and shut themselves in over their Smissmas furlough. A full month off had taken the doctor aback when he'd first heard about it, doubly so when he'd learned that it was because of a clause written into Heavy's contract specifically, but he wasn't about to complain. A friendly gift exchange and warm goodbyes with the rest of the team in early December left him with all the time he could want with his beloved giant, alone for once, sequestered away from society, away from anything and anyone that would interrupt their cozy holiday in one another's arms.

They'd only been dating for six months, falling together shortly after they began their work together with RED, clicking as friends instantly, as more than friends shortly afterward. Medic hadn't been able to resist the laconic giant with his short temper and all-suffering, dangerous demeanor who exploded with vivacious glee on the field of battle and laughed and hooted and hollered with their teammates, wearing his every emotion plainly and unguarded upon his brow. What had a man to fear when he'd already set fire to hell and spit on its ashes? Heavy's honesty, guarded only in a few deep, very personal ways, spoke strongly to the doctor, who had spent his whole life hiding bits and pieces of himself, whether it be his identity, is predilections, or simply his criminal record. It was Heavy who'd allowed Medic to realize that he was only limited by what he would allow to limit him. Heavy had freed him, and all the same, had captured something of his; his heart.

Two weeks of peace and quiet in Heavy's mountain home were just what Medic would have ordered for himself. He had no bullets flying past or into him, no explosions, none of Scout and Soldier's hare-brained ideas, and no random, out of control fires to watch out for. When he'd signed his contract, Medic hadn't realized that being Team Dad was part of his job description. Not that he minded, of course. He loved his job and his team, but this? This quiet, this contentment to be with Heavy and lounge about and read and cook and cuddle at their leisure, spending all day in the giant's enormous, plush bed if they wanted, this was what he needed to reweave his frayed nerves. Heavy was good for him, in every sense of the word.

Except right now. Right now he was freezing on Heavy's porch as the giant lumbered out into the snow with a grimace across his handsome features, the moon mostly obscured and waning toward newness in the star-speckled night sky, casting a wan glow over him, a silver halo that made him seem even larger than he already was. Medic tucked his mitten-clad hands inside of his sleeves as he crossed his arms and frowned at his boyfriend, who stood in the snow wearing naught more than a t-shirt and sweatpants. It would have been threateningly attractive were it not for the fact that Medic was sure he was going to lose something to frostbite.

"What are you doing?" he rejoined, leaning against the railing of the porch.

"Doktor, I love you."

"I love you too, Schatz, but was--"

"I have not been honest with you."

Medic craned up a bit, cut off by Heavy's words and taken aback. What in the world was Heavy talking about? He was an honest man by habit, word and deed, and in the course of their whirlwind of a relationship, he'd revealed more to the German doctor than he'd told anyone. Even Miss Pauling's intelligence on him left a few tiny gaps, which were kept safe in the minds of Heavy and Medic alone. What could Heavy not have been honest about?

"What do you mean?"

"Have told you everything about myself. Have left no secrets. Want my doktor to know me inside and out, because I love you, more than anything in world. Except... for one thing."

"Heavy...?"

"Am afraid. This thing, is not good thing. Is not history or family or crimes or work. Is not fears or tastes in food or illnesses. Is something very different. Is... is not natural."

"Heavy what is not natural is you standing in half a meter of snow in your pajamas!" Medic countered, his voice cracking a bit. "Whatever it is we can talk about it inside! Why are you punishing yourself? This is not like you!"

"Am not punishing myself, Doktor. Am keeping us safe. This thing I have to tell you, I must tell you quickly. It is starting soon."

"What is starting?" Medic wasn't sure if he was trembling from the cold or fear now. Heavy was scaring him. He had a murderously grim look on his face. The look he wore when he told his beloved doctor about the gulag. About his father. About what he did to the guards with his bare hands and the weapons he stole from them to continue his rampage. About the flames, the screams, all of the blood, and escaping that horrible place, his mama clutching his hand tightly, Zhanna and Yana running as fast as their little feet could carry them, Bronislava clutched to his chest, cradled in one giant arm with her tiny, shaking hands fisted in his shirt, her breaths puffing and rattling out of her frame in abject terror.

They were all so afraid. They were afraid for so long. It was the only thing that scared Heavy anymore.

Until now.

He was terrified.

Medic could see it in the turn of his frown, in the clench of his fists, the hunch of his shoulders, and the pleading, wounded glint in his icy blue eyes under the shadow of the moon.

"The Ursid shower," Heavy replied, casting his eyes to the stars. "Will happen soon, and when it does, I will change."

"Change?"

"My father, his father, his father, so on. Every first son in my family, we have all changed when Ursid meteors fall in sky. We are not human, then. Is a week, at most, over beginning of winter, when nights are longest and lights rain from Ursa Minor. Tonight is start of shower. Tonight, I will change."

"Not human? Tonight? Heavy why did you not tell me?"

"Have tried. Have not known how. How do I tell man I love that I am not human? That I am...bear."

"Bear?" Medic echoed, confused.

"...werebear, I think is English word. I become man and bear at same time, more giant than I am."

"A monster?"

"Da. But also not. Am still Heavy. Am still person. Can still think, can still speak, but is difficult to do that. But there is animal inside head. Cannot always control self. Sometimes must go into woods, must hunt, must do terrible things with bare hands and teeth. It makes me think. Makes me think of guards, of gulag, of screams and blood. It was so easy, Doktor. It was so easy because have done it before, to bears and wolves and deer. Was not so different to do it to men. Men who treated us like animals. They were animals themselves." He looked down at his hands, as if remembering the feel of the blood under his fingernails. "And I am top of food chain."

"You always have been," Medic breathed, his heart pounding in his chest. He couldn't believe what Heavy was saying. This was sudden, and hard to process. How could he be a monster? He knew monsters and mages and other such things existed, but Heavy? "Nothing rivals your strength. It is part of what makes you beautiful."

"You are beautiful, Doktor. In face of strange and unnatural all you can say are sweet things. If you do not want me, I understand. But this is why we have long furlough. This is last hidden thing about me. Is last secret. Doktor, that you are here with me, is complete trust."

"Heavy..."

"I love you, Doktor," Heavy smiled, and behind him, lights began to wink across the sky, just a few, streaking past glittering stars in trails of white, and with that, the giant doubled forward, immense hands crashing into the cold snow. He bellowed in agony, the fabric of his shirt stretching to its limits as his bulk began to expand, bulging outward in thick muscle until the seams of his already fitted cotton tee could no longer contain him and ripped open, shredding off in tatters as he grew. Everything grew, his muscles, his height, his hands and feet and face, which pushed outward in a wide muzzle, teeth curving out of his gums into sharp instruments of violence. His ears slipped up his head and changed shape as his spine elongated into a short stub of a tail. His fingernails grew and hardened and darkened as they scythed out into claws, and like a sudden ripple of wind across a wheat field, his hair filled out in a mass of deep brown fur that ran from the tips of his ears to the ends of his toes, covering him in a taupe coat against the elements, fluffy and thick. Heavy rose to his hind feet with a roar to the skies as the pain of skeletal and muscular alteration, and took a few deep breaths through the black nose at the end of his snout, hefting his shoulders with it in a sort of resigned huff. He scratched idly at himself, careful with his claws, very aware of how itchy the sudden explosion of hair had left him. He turned to Medic, and looked down at himself.

His shirt was a distant memory, a few shreds still clinging about his waist and elbows, and his sweatpants had fared slightly better thanks to their more elastic material, but were no longer intact by any means. He felt the snow melting between his toes and under the pads of his feet. He looked back to his lover, to those wide, blue eyes, the dropped jaw, and what he was sure would be horrified screaming.

Instead, Medic whooped and rushed from his huddled spot on the porch, boots crunching through deep snow, to stand immediately before the giant ursine monster before him. He tugged his mittens off, dropping them without care, and reached up, craning to be able to touch Heavy's face with his new, greater height, and urged him to bend down closer to his level. The doctor's hands ran over Heavy's muzzle and jaw, petting at his fur, scratching up behind one ear and making it flick. He was grinning in that way he did when he did surgery, or buried his saw deep in a BLU's flesh. It was manic, gleeful, fascinated, and altogether typically Medic. Of course he'd be all about this. It was different. It was new. It was something he'd never thought possible, or even thought about at all! It was the exact kind of thing that filled the doctor with unbridled glee: confronting the unknown up close and personal.

His hands slipped down to Heavy's chest and belly, sifting through his thick fur, and he tugged away the last shreds of his shirt. "Heavy, this..." He looked up, back into his beloved's eyes, which, disarmingly, were still their beautiful pale blue. "This is amazing! I cannot believe you feared telling me this! I cannot believe you feared showing me this!" His smile grew impish as he beckoned the great bear's face back down to his own. "You are adorable!"

"Doktor," Heavy groaned as Medic pressed a kiss to the side of his muzzle, rolling his eyes and pulling away a bit. His voice was thicker than before, more resonant, bassy with an undertone like a growl. Where he'd rumbled in his throat before, now he thundered from his enormous diaphragm, a noise that vibrated through the air and against Medic's lips. The doctor couldn't help but wonder how it felt to hear him speak like this with their bodies pressed together, his head against his furry chest. "Doktor, you like this?" Heavy asked, speaking with a careful slowness that betrayed how much effort he had to put into getting his mouth to move correctly.

Medic wondered if he had much practice trying to speak like this, and what more practice could accomplish.

"Of course I like this," Medic cooed, wrapping his arms around the ursine beast before him, a giddy laugh bubbling in his chest. He buried his nose in Heavy's fur. "You are still mein Heavy, ja?"

"Da, I suppose."

"This is simply something new I have learned about you! I did not stop loving you when I learned your scars, or your birthmarks, did I?"

"Nyet."

"Then why would I stop when I learn about this?"

"Doktor, am monster."

"My monster," Medic teased, scratching at Heavy's belly.

Heavy took a moment to muse on this, wrapping thick, furry arms around his likely-freezing lover. If he hadn't already thought Medic was perfect, this would confirm everything. Only he could take learning his boyfriend was a werebear in such stride as to be excited about it like he'd just learned his birthday or his favourite dish.

"Doktor?"

"Ja, mein Heavy?"

"You know everything about me. No secrets, nothing new to learn."

"Well, I can always learn _something_ , Schatz."

Heavy made a confused noise like a grunt at this.

"Well, for one, I can learn what it is like to sleep in a werebear's arms. Also, how much more to cook for our Smissmas dinner," he teased, reaching up to tap a finger gently against Heavy's nose.

The great bear's chest and belly shook at that, laughter snuffling out of his muzzle and rumbling through his insides. He reached down and gathered Medic up into his arms, the frozen doctor cleaving to his furry body in an instant, well-accustomed to being carried by his enormous lover. "Come along now, Doktor. Must get you inside before you freeze."

"How nice. Bring me to the fireplace. I have always wanted to curl up by the fire with a bearskin. I have just never thought that skin would be attached to a living werebear, nor mein boyfriend, by that measure!"

"Doktor if you are going to make bad jokes for whole week I will drop you in snow."


End file.
